20. WORK DINNER
Time trotted along, and soon Violet counted that it'd been a month since she became a resident of Helghast's castle. It was as strange as a reverse-fairytale: the dark opulence and instead of a noble and fair prince, she was dealing with a dark mage with terrible ambitions. She wasn't finding any footing in her situation; as time went on she just felt more trapped. However she did have plenty of moments where the depths of Helghast's crimes permeated her resolve - she simply had to stop him. The most visceral evidence of this: if Helghast hadn't been influencing other worlds she would've had another normal expatriation. She imagined another version of herself possibly at the end stage, adding the last details to her note-taking volumes.
Currently Violet was nestled into the corner of the library, sitting on the blood-coloured carpet with book stacks surrounding her. She'd come up with an idea - it wasn't great, but even a stretch was better than nothing.
Her key advantage seemed to be her ability to perceive magic. Helghast was aware of it, but not its extent nor her other sensing powers. Violet 'scanned' the castle every day and tried to memorise all the significant and stationary magical signals. When they disappeared, or when new ones appeared, it meant the objects attached to them had been moved through his portals. Unfortunately, this sense didn't allow her to recognise her crystal ball. If Helghast had accomplished what he'd said it might already be drained of all magic, now nothing but an empty glass ornament sitting on a shelf and invisible to her.
Violet had seen Helghast using his portals with her strange new sense, they all looked identical so she'd identified twelve of them as well as their rough locations. Like he'd done before they left Enim, Helghast would raise a hand and 'invisible' magic would seep out into a receptor of some kind, power it and then the portal would open.
Violet was struggling with the book open in front of her: Force Magic. It was a generic kind of magic that emitted pulses, different to telekinesis. Some magic branches were easy for her to grasp, others were harder. This one was very hard, but Violet only needed to perform the slightest action. She strained, psychically manipulating her lifeforce exactly how the beginner's exercise instructed. Finally her efforts were rewarded: a light sheen flashed over her hand.
Force Magic. Colour: jade green.
She snapped the book shut and tossed it with the other rejects. Fallen off that pile was Photon Magic, Gravity Magic, Phosphorus Magic, Plant Magic… increasingly obscure branches. Something had to match what those receivers on the portals wanted. Violet picked up the third-last book from the unread stack: Electromagnetic Magic. Again she flicked through the intro to the first practical exercise. This had to be similar enough to Electromancy, so at least she'd probably garner a result soon enough.
She was right. After a minute of trying it worked for her.
Electromagnetic Magic. Colour: turquoise.
That was it. Violet's eyes widened in shock. The exact colour that had weaved out of Helghast's hand and powered the portals - it was this shade of turquoise. She'd found it. Hurriedly, Violet packed all the other books together and started returning them to their places in the shelves. Her heart was hammering. All she needed to do was practice this skill and she might be able to travel between Helghast's worlds.
Once the other books were returned she walked quickly to her room with the single grey tome she needed under her cloak.
Lydia and Paul had both completed their terms of being stationed here and were sent back to their respective worlds. Others came to replace them for differing amounts of months, and that was just how it worked. Stevens was due to return to the ice camp in another few weeks. Violet hoped that before he left he'd pluck up the courage to tell the kitchen worker how he felt, the strawberry blonde. Violet frowned as she walked. With that said, if she was successful in exposing Helghast then all of them could be arrested or killed in ensuing conflict. She didn't want to put the others in danger, of course not. However they were complacent enough to not care about the many testificates getting used and abused. Someone simply had to do something about it.
Violet was back in her room and dragged over a lit candle on the desk. She started to read more about the discipline and practised making the magic weave out like she'd seen it do from Helghast's fingertips.
A knock alerted her and she closed the book and went to the door, expecting to be visited by another servant but she came face-to-face with Helghast himself and deadpanned.
"You'll be having dinner with me tonight."
"Oh? What's the occasion?" She tried to keep her voice under control.
"It's my business dinner that I have with a few trusted subordinates. I may as well introduce them to you, one day you might very well join their ranks."
Violet didn't know what to say. She was glad it wasn't dinner with just the two of them. She couldn't stop thinking of the book on her desk behind her. She'd set it front-side down, but he could still recognise it from the back cover. What if he craned his neck around her right now, would he notice it then guess her plan? Violet just nodded.
Helghast noticed the dress she was wearing, "Ah good. You're already in it. I think that's the gown I fancy most on you."
She suppressed a shiver. Sure enough, as she'd predicted earlier her work clothes had mysteriously disappeared from her drawer one day.
"So that would be the main dining hall, right?"
"Correct. Be there at six o'clock. You may ask some questions, but leave most of the talking to us."
Violet nodded again, playing at being demure, and he turned away and left her. She closed the door and scratched her hair a little madly, stressed from the encounter. She opened the drawer and dropped the book inside, closing it quickly. A dinner with Helghast's officials could provide her with useful information too. She sat on the edge of her bed and processed.
There was an opportunity to fit in more practice the following hours, and then it was time for the dinner. The brass hands of the wooden wall clock edged closer to six. Her room regrettably now sported a dressing table with various items for pampering. Violet added some loops to her hair and blushed her cheeks. She'd not played around with the expensive products like he'd probably wanted, but since this was a formal occasion she decided to put some effort in. She didn't need to change her clothes, so once finished with that she headed out.
"The reports show an increase in exports this year of 130%, which equates to twenty thousand tonnes of magically-infused compact ice."
They were seated at the long table in the dining hall, Violet was beside Helghast while his four associates were opposite and spaced apart. The entrees had been delivered by finely dressed servants and they were now starting on their first course. Basic formalities were out of the way, and Violet found that the descriptions she'd been given of these people were accurate - job-wise and appearance. Mr Sullivan was a waify man, his buttoned blue tunic looked like it was supported by stiff creases instead of a body underneath. His bony fingers were pressed together, and the others listened while also trying the soup, everyone seemed comfortable with this routine. Though they weren't familiar with Violet, and had asked her about her background and current mentorship before Helghast moved the talk onto business matters.
Violet knew he was explaining the compact ice for her benefit. She peeked at Helghast and wondered if normal questions were okay to ask. She ought to learn as much as she could.
"I heard that the world you oversee has a rare ore underground but for some reason it's the ice that's valuable," Violet started. She didn't mind letting them know she'd heard something, after all curiosity was a good sign if Helghast wanted her to work for him in some capacity. She could show him that she had a mind for business. "Can you tell me about that?"
Mr Sullivan nodded, seemingly happy to talk about his work, "Well you see Violet, worlds are all encompassed by magical fields of varying strengths, I'm sure you've heard." She was nodding along for him, now ignoring her soup. "Some worlds have unstable magical fields, and that's theoretically the reason for the significance of the world I manage. We decided to name it Beira, after a winter deity in mythology. Not that Beira is completely or even primarily a cold biome world, but similar to Enim - which previously we'd just called 'The Desert world' - our only camps and bases of operations are in the one biome while the vast majority of all our worlds are unexplored."
"When you say 'we named the world Beira'…?"
"I mean myself and some colleagues who work there had a vote."
"So Mister Helghast isn't too interested in naming the worlds he's found?" Violet cast him a glance as he calmly spooned in soup.
"No," Sullivan smiled, "Mister Helghast is very practically minded, only our most important worlds have names."
Violet nodded. She wasn't supposed to talk too much and she was ignoring her food unlike the rest of them, but she was just so curious.
"So if Beira has an unstable magical field across the whole world, that must disrupt activities there and make your job more complicated, right?" Violet then forced in a spoonful of soup.
"Beira's magical field is mostly stable. When we ran tests on it we discovered fluctuations that were barely significant. It could mean that perhaps, every thousand years or longer something dramatic might take place, like the polarity of the field switches, but there's no concrete proof that an event like that contributed to the initial charging of the ores. That's why it's our experts' theory. It could just as easily have been caused by another anomaly, like say a magically-charged asteroid strike from another dimension, or perhaps the ore itself originated offworld."
"There's so much to discover about unexplored worlds," Violet commented. "It truly is fascinating."
"I think so too," His eyes twinkled with fondness. So far everyone else at the table was just eating and giving half their attention.
Violet carefully tore her bread piece, "So… something charged this ore a long time ago, and it emitted an energy, and overtime it depleted but a property of the compact ice absorbed the energy and it's still there."
"Precisely. And trading this material is one of our larger business activities, and almost the entirety of our income sourced from Beira. Even though we don't fully understand it. Our main buyer in the past six months has been an ice wizard, we've been shipping him so much he could be building himself a castle out of it, though that sounds terribly unwise for a material we still don't know everything about."
Violet nodded and thought about that for a moment.
Then she looked at Mr Chandra who was cutting into his chicken, he had coffee-coloured skin and flecks of grey in his wiry dark hair. On his other side was the ironically named Ms Hart, who was sharp-featured, including a large nose. Her body was slender like a bird, and her sharp bones looked just as brittle, but there was a hardness to her gaze and she had very short dark hair. She had small earrings but otherwise wasn't at all dressed to resemble a sophisticated beauty, not like Violet felt pressured to. The two of them wore unmatching uniforms that conveyed an importance but also a hands-on practicality for their work. It didn't seem like anybody working for Helghast just sat in an office issuing orders, not even Helghast himself.
"So I also heard…" Violet started up again, "Mr Chandra and Ms Hart, you two both come from the same world? Does it have a name?"
Mr Chandra reached for a hand towel to dab his face, Ms Hart sipped from her drink. Both were also willing to talk about their jobs. They must be proud of them, even if they were part of a criminal syndicate.
"I've been an associate of Mister Helghast going on four years now," Mr Chandra had a wheedling voice, he adjusted his glasses, "My background is geological research, examining the underground makeup of worlds, the abundance of certain minerals and what it could suggest about them."
Ms Hart held her glass close to her face, she took another sip patiently so Violet could start her questioning with him.
"Is there something geologically special about your world?"
"No," he laughed. "It has an ordinary amount of the same precious materials found on any world, but using my expertise I've found the regions most rich with them and we have some extensive mining operations. It doesn't contribute as much to the bottom dollar, but I've been leading expeditions to map more of the world. Through tests I identify the regions abundant with valuable materials, but what we're really hoping for is to stumble onto something special. Like the magically infused ices on Berma- Beira, was it? The ice world."
"Beira," Mr Sullivan clarified for Mr Chandra.
"Does your world have a name?" Violet asked him again.
"There's several I've heard floating around from the native inhabitants. Suppose I like Felson best, I use it the most. Ms Hart prefers Xiomar?" He looked to her for clarification.
Ms Hart nodded, still holding her glass by her face, "That's the one I hear most from the prisoners."
Prisoners, native inhabitants. Violet nodded with a sad understanding.
"So… those natives working the mines would also be testificates, right?"
"Yes," Mr Chandra said, sounding utterly unconcerned, "and a portion are transported over from the other worlds too."
It was said in such a blasé manner. Violet suddenly, completely lost her appetite. It was so much worse than mass extortion on one world, that had just been a side venture. On others the testificates were getting rounded up and forced to work in miserable conditions because these worlds had been long abandoned by their original players, forgotten, and nobody was regulating them. Violet nodded and tried not to look like she despised everyone at the table.
"So, Ms Hart… what's your role?" Violet already knew she was going to hate the answer.
"I have six years experience as a warden of a mid-security prison. After an incident I moved on from that, and two years ago became employed under Helghast as head of discipline and overseer of the camps on Xiomar." Her explanation was succinct, she seemed like a no-nonsense woman.
"I suppose you're both sort of sharing that world because the mapped territory grew quite large?" Violet was trying to keep in mind that she needed to know this, even though emotionally she'd heard enough.
"That's right. But there's more of us - heads of respective teams. We're just the ones Mister Helghast enjoys eating with."
Violet looked at Helghast who was staring ahead, now casually chewing a slice of spiced pork.
"My turn?" Mr Phillipe, the final guest, was leaning forward with his elbow on the table and grinning.
He was a tall man with thinning hair. His lidded eyes did give him a look of being somewhat tired, like Violet had heard. Purple skin under watery eyes, and a reddish nose that could imply mild alcoholism, but he seemed like an upbeat sort of fellow. Violet only needed to nod and he jumped into talking.
"My world Folium, has a unique and varied biosphere. So far we've identified over fifty species of plant or fungus that have not been reported existing on any other known world. I'm a biologist, and we're always running tests, there's so much to experiment on and I'm sure our next valuable find is imminent!" He was the most enthusiastic.
"That's really nice." Too bad the bigger picture of Helghast's conglomeration was so horrible.
"Tell me Violet, do you like plants? You're named after a flower, after all."
He was trying to be charming. He wanted to talk more about his work, maybe in front of his boss, but Violet didn't care. There was probably no mining or slave labour on Folium if it was just teams of scientists running tests on plants. She needed to deter him and change the subject.
"I'm afraid I never had much interest." Violet looked around, "Folium isn't home to the factories is it? I heard that was the bulk of all your income?" Clearly by their expressions, none of the four around the table knew much.
A line of kitchen workers entered with the next course. Some began picking up the finished silver trays, others handed out fresh little towels and more food.
Violet looked at Helghast who seemed to be gearing himself up to speak. When the servants left again he straightened.
"The factory is on the birch forest world and yes, it's the bulk of my empire. It's manned by two thousand testificates who work with the materials we get from an extensive mining system nearby. I didn't bother with a name for the world, it's just my primary working world."
Two thousand testificates. And that's probably not including those in the mines. Now Violet felt like she was about to be sick. She looked at a steamy pumpkin pie prepared all special with herbs and pickled sides. She pressed the little towel to her mouth, pretending to clean it instead of concealing her disgust. She paused for several seconds before deciding that would have to be it for her questions. She couldn't bear to know any more.
"Thank you for answering my questions, it's all very interesting," Violet forced out some manners, "I should let you get back to your meeting."
"Right, well..." Helghast started cutting into his pie and talk shifted to progress reports and new findings.
Violet caught as much of it as she could. As the night dragged on she forced herself to have a few bites of pie, but she couldn't taste it and that was all she ate.
The next day Violet was training with the guards, as usual. She didn't think there'd be anything she'd want to do more than get stronger, but the more she learnt about Helghast's activities the more a new driving force was taking root in her mind. It was now getting to the point where something she'd insisted on was feeling like mismanaged time. She ought to be refining Electromagnetic magic to the point it can work his portal equipment. Violet tried to block out those thoughts and the growing frustration as she ducked from a sword swing and sprang around.
She battered away another sword behind her and jumped. Then she charged up purple electricity and quickly fired, Stevens grunted as his rush was thwarted.
The necklace seemed essential now, even if it was technically a crutch for controlling her powers. Violet still practised without it, but mostly it was around her neck. She supposed mages were typically decked out in robes and rings anyway, it was probably very normal to rely on magic aids.
The next second after Violet had stunned with her magic, she jolted as a sword hit the armour at her back.
"That would've been lethal if I'd aimed for your neck," the man behind her warned.
Violet just nodded, she reached up and adjusted the helmet that seemed a little big for her. All of them were sparkling in the vaguely transparent green of diamond armour. She took another ready stance and the three opponents stepped back before they all ran at her again.
She was allowed to use her magic and sword fighting skills, but she was also outnumbered.
She sensed an opponent at her back and turned, took a cheap shot without thinking and rammed her foot down hard into his shin, in a spot between the armour plating. He yelped and went down on one knee and Violet rapped her sword against his chest to represent a killshot.
"That was a surprisingly dirty way to fight." The other two stopped to stare at her. The other guy, Tristan, straightened up while rubbing his leg and frowning at her.
Only then Violet registered what she'd done.
"Sorry about that. Force of habit."
They shrugged it off and then training resumed. Violet knew that her desperate style of fighting was intimidating to a portion of the men. There was a wildness and ferocity to it, like an animal clawing itself out from death's grasp. Still, they were soldiers and some had been involved in serious battles and not just skirmishes. The fighting went on for another hour before Violet called it quits early - she needed to work on her other ambition: stopping Helghast.
Violet walked until she found one of the transporters. The corridor and its passages were unfamiliar to her, but she'd sensed this transporter out many times and mentally made the journey. This was the portal on the lowest level, and the room wasn't locked. It didn't even have a door. Helghast seemed convinced nobody but him could figure out how to use it. Violet didn't feel nearly ready to go through, but this was the perfect oppertunity to test if the portal would react to her. Before trying anything she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, focusing again….
Helghast was in the upper level, in a section he'd occupied many times before - most likely his study or bedchamber. Servants were walking about but none were moving in her direction for the moment. Violet opened her eyes and then took deliberate steps toward the machine.
Her brow creased, she raised her hand like she'd seen Helghast do many times before - some of those instances with her real eyes, most of them with her sensing vision. A turquoise colour rolled out of her hand and she directed the wisps into the vented unit on the right side of the transporter.
Violet had learnt that trying to control the wisp just made it disperse. The cloudiness of magic was just energy setting out to do something, and not something that was supposed to be directly manipulated. Or, that was just a skill with magic that was too advanced for Violet right now. Either way, she was sensing out what was inside the vent and the wisp trailed in and sure enough a receptor of some kind was waiting for power. Violet tried to manipulate the energy in that space, and it took so long for something to happen that she started to think her plan wasn't going to work.
She realised it wanted a specific amount of charge, and after mentally applying different amounts, and exhausting nearly all her excess lifeforce in the process, she finally sensed a change. So she focused on maintaining that degree of charge and kept it up. If her lifeforce for magic ran out she'd have to leave, wait for it to replenish gradually then come back to try again. Violet was getting better at not wasting huge amounts for small results, but she was still rather clumsy with that at best. Violet sensed that the hidden receptor was now resonating with her.
Violet opened her eyes and was startled by success. The portal wasn't open, but instead of empty space there were the beginnings of a coloured purple swirl. She'd done it. She'd figured out how to turn the portals on and off, without Helghast knowing. She should now be able to travel to his six other worlds.
Violet sensed something else all of a sudden - a lifeforce standing behind her. She did a sharp intake of breath and the magic coming from her hand snuffed out, a second later the portal was empty again. She turned around to see a testificate servant she'd spoken to a few times.
"You can use his portals…" Eadie was in the doorway, confused. "But they're Helghast's. Only he can use them. Why would he…?"
Violet took a slow step toward the confused servant, "Eadie… you would want your brethren to be freed, wouldn't you? You'd want to put an end to that factory and everything that's been happening, right?"
Eadie just stared for a while, and then he slowly nodded.
Violet took another step, "I didn't want to put my life in danger again. At first, I wanted to be Helghast's apprentice and become strong. But I can't." Tears were filling her eyes, perhaps partially fear from getting caught, but her sorrow from learning everything she had at yesterday's dinner was definitely leaking out too. "I can't just stay here and behave, be the obedient doll he wants me to be. I want to come up with a way to stop him."
Maybe trying to come up with a lie would've been better than blurting the truth. Still, Eadie was transfixed, staring in a way Violet thought she understood. Testificates were all fairly helpless without their iron golem defenders. Most of them weren't imaginative enough to dream for much. Perhaps this was the first time Eadie was daring to dream of not being powerless. Violet wiped her eyes and waited for his response.
"I want to help you," he said.
"Good," she broke out in a smile and had to wipe her eyes again.
It had been too dangerous to try recruiting someone. This unplanned alliance made Violet optimistic, and gave her the comforting thought that she wasn't doing this alone. If Eadie had been a librarian or cartographer in his village, he might have the capacity to come up with ideas with her, but she didn't think so. She didn't get that vibe from him. But he was likely to come in handy.
Also, it was just a tad bit poetic that a testificate would help her take Helghast down.
。。。
【AN: Okay so uni starts back up tomorrow and I haven't finished this story. Still, I only have a few chapters to go and the first week is never too heavy. I'll probably get this wrapped up soon.】
